Apple buys edge-based AI startup Xnor.ai for a reported $200M – TechCrunch

Xnor.ai, spun off in 2017 from the nonprofit Allen Institute for AI (AI2), has been acquired by Apple for about $200 million. Apple confirmed the reports with its standard statement for this sort of quiet acquisition: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans." Xnor.ai began as a process for making machine learning algorithms highly efficient -- so efficient that they could run on even the lowest tier of hardware out there, things like embedded electronics in security cameras that use only a modicum of power. Yet using Xnor's algorithms they could accomplish tasks like object recognition, which in other circumstances might require a powerful processor or connection to the cloud. CEO Ali Farhadi and his founding team put the company together at AI2 and spun it out just before the organization formally launched its incubator program.